December 26, 2018

Beware Silicon Valley Santas in the Schools

When it comes to Silicon Valley Santas bearing gifts for our children, I am a big Scrooge. Every responsible parent should be, too.

When it comes to Silicon Valley Santas bearing gifts for our children, I am a big Scrooge. Every responsible parent should be, too.

In 2016, Apple CEO Tim Cook showered a rural Idaho school district with 500 iPads and Apple TVs for every classroom, along with free training as part of a 29-state $100 million personalized digital technology program. He visited the Idaho schools recently with Ivanka Trump, where she praised the “laboratories of innovation” for using Apple products “to transform the learning environment and personalize students’ educational experiences based on their unique needs and strengths!”

With all due respect, this is what I call Edutech Shiny Toy Syndrome. And it’s out of control. Kids don’t need screens for individualized educational experiences. They are already on those stultifying, addictive, isolating screens far too much. Bah! Humbug!

Why give captive schoolchildren more tech crack inside the classroom? And what is this “personalized learning” mumbo jumbo? That’s what human beings – you know, parents and teachers – are for at home and at school.

Besides, after three years, what is the actual proof that all of Apple’s and Google’s and Microsoft’s infiltration of the classroom is producing actual academic improvement and results? There is none. The Silicon Valley companies don’t want to talk about academic achievement. Neither do all of the salivating administrators and edutech cheerleaders happily taking shiny toy bribes.

That Idaho superintendent so enamored of Apple’s goodies even admitted: “We’re not trying to boost a test score here, we are trying to change a narrative for students.”

I’ll control my own kids’ “narratives” and their personal data, thank you very much.

Parents from all parts of the political spectrum understand that “personalized learning” is Silicon Valley propaganda to distract from the true aim: Grabbing student and family data under the guise of “innovation” and luring the next generation of addicted consumers. Another unhealthy byproduct of the tech toy infiltration: an onslaught of online ads. Education watchdog Cheri Kiesecker reported this month that Missouri school kids required to download educational apps, sign up for online accounts and use tech devices logged into Google products were exposed to advertising for everything from “vaping” to “insurance, medicine, automobiles, toys, clothing, candy, and a wide range of apps and video games.”

I’ve reported previously on how the Los Angeles Unified School District dumped $1 billion of scarce resources into a disastrous iPad program. Educrats paid $678 per glorified Apple e-textbook, pre-loaded with Common Core-branded apps created by the educational publishing and testing giant Pearson. Pearson’s digital learning products are now used by an estimated 25 million-plus customers in North America. Common Core, far from dead, has been a convenient new catalyst for getting the next generation of consumers hooked.

Four years after ending its original iPad giveaway fiasco, L.A. school officials are at it again. In October, Verizon provided middle schools in the L.A. unified school district a $2 million grant for “iPads, digital resources, and free home Internet access” for one year – no doubt crammed with nonstop Verizon ads.

Now, Facebook – under fire for privacy breaches worldwide – is peddling something called “Summit Learning,” a web-based curriculum bankrolled by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. Last month, students in New York City schools walked out in protest of the program.

“It’s annoying to just sit there staring at one screen for so long,” freshman Mitchel Storman, 14, told the New York Post. He spends close to five hours a day on Summit classes in algebra, biology, English, world history and physics. Teacher interaction is minimal. “You have to teach yourself,” Storman rightly complained.

No outside research supports any claim that Summit Learning actually enhances, um, learning. What more studies are showing, however, is that endless hours of screen time are turning kids into zombies who are more easily distracted, less happy, less socially adept and less physically fit. Standing up to the Silicon Valley Santas and asserting your family’s “right to no” may well be the best long-term gift you can give your school-age children.

COPYRIGHT 2018 CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.